The Grundig FR200 is your best bet for an occaisional use/emergency use radio, with an alarm clock. You'll never be able to hand-crank enough to run a cell phone. Cell phones are HUGE energy hogs. Radios use very little, by comparison--no moving parts, and they merely receive, not broadcast. If you want a backup power source for your cell phone, the Goal0 12301 Nomad 7M Solar Panel is the best.

I looked into hand-cranked units for charging cell phones but there was nothing that seemed to work. The day before Irene arrived I remembered that the battery jump kit I keep in my garage has a USB port and a 12-volt power plug on it. During the day and a half we were without power we used it to keep our phones and iPad charged. It worked like a charm. One more reason (besides the occasional need to jump start a car) to keep one of these things handy.

A cool tool can be any book, gadget, software, video, map, hardware, material, or website that is tried and true. All reviews on this site are written by readers who have actually used the tool and others like it. Items can be either old or new as long as they are wonderful. We post things we like and ignore the rest. Suggestions for tools much better than what is recommended here are always wanted.